THE STONING OF PAUL

the city, thinking he was dead. But, as the disciples gathered round him, he arose and went into the city.

the Ga

church

(21-25)

Next day he went off with Barnabas to Derbe; and after Revispreaching the gospel to that city and making a number of ting disciples, they turned back to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, latian strengthening the disciples, encouraging them to hold by es the faith, and telling them, We must enter the Kingdom of God through many afflictions. They ordained elders for them in every church, and with prayer and fasting commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Then, passing through Pisidia they came to Pamphylia; and after speaking the word of the Lord in Perga they went down to Attalia. Thence they sailed for Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

On their arrival they gathered the church together and The proceeded to report how God had worked with them, and report how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. They church spent a considerable time there with the disciples.

I. Paul's Work at Antioch. Antioch, the old Syrian capital, was not only the city where the term "Christians" was coined, but also the point from which Christianity set out on its deliberate conquest of the Roman world. Here it was that the Gospel of Jesus had first been proclaimed to the Gentiles. As a result, many Greeks were already found in the membership of the Antioch church. Antioch was also the Syrian gateway through which ran the main highway that led across Asia Minor and Macedonia to Rome. Its natural position, as well as its history, fitted it for its lofty rôle. The wisdom and foresight of the Antioch Christians and especially of Barnabas, their leader, were revealed by taking Paul into their ranks. It was a most significant recognition of the man and his work in Tarsus and Cilicia. Barnabas even went in person to bring Paul to Antioch, thus giving to the act an official authority. For Paul the year spent in teaching at Antioch must also have been of great value. Here amidst most favorable conditions he faced many of the problems that he later met single-handed in the other great cities of the empire. Here he worked side by side with Barnabas, whose earlier years as a follower of Jesus had been spent at Jerusalem in closest contact with the Twelve. Here Paul must have absorbed many of the beliefs

at Antioch

(26-26)

and hopes of the primitive Jerusalem church, although, as he repeatedly asserts, his own faith rested on more personal grounds-his experience of the risen Christ and of the divine Spirit working in his life and in that of the converts who responded to his preaching.

The date of Paul's work at Antioch is indicated by Luke, for he connects it with the terrible drought and famine that came according to Josephus during the procuratorship of Tiberius Alexander, 46-48 A.D. Jerusalem suffered especially. The needs of its inhabitants were in part relieved through the generous gifts of a Jewish proselyte, Queen Helena, of Adiabene. Her example was followed by the Christians of Antioch. Barnabas and Paul, the leaders in the mission to the Gentiles, were chosen to bear these evidences of the good-will and devotion of the Gentile Christians to the members of the Judean churches. This Christian act undoubtedly did much to heal the threatening breach between these two branches of the church. It also opened the way for the memorable interview between Paul and the authorities at Jerusalem, recorded in Galatians 2 (cf. § CLII), which established the freedom of the Gentile Christians. It is also significant that the one condition then insisted upon by the Jerusalem authorities was that the benefactions of the Gentile Christians be continued. Another important result of the mission to Jerusalem was that Paul and Barnabas brought back with them to Antioch Barnabas's nephew, John Mark, who, according to early Christian tradition, had been closely associated with Peter and who later wrote the earliest surviving life of Jesus. Thus the two very different types of churches, that at Jerusalem and that at Antioch, were closely bound together by the bond of mutual service and the way prepared for the great forward step that came on the return of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch.

II. The Sending Forth of Barnabas and Paul. The narrative in Acts implies that the impulse to enter upon the first foreign missionary campaign came not from one man but from the collective body of Antioch Christians. Paul by his teachings and example had undoubtedly sown the seed. It requires little imagination to detect his personal influence in the memorable meeting when the great decision was made. Those who suggest are usually chosen to execute, and Barnabas and Paul were the two appointed to initiate the work. The success of the Jerusalem mission may also have led the Antioch Christians to seek a larger field. They probably had large resources at their command. Barnabas formerly held land in Jerusalem; Manaen, one of their number, had been a playmate of Herod, the

SENDING FORTH BARNABAS AND PAUL

tetrarch. Antioch was an opulent city and the Jews were among its most prosperous citizens. It is probable, therefore, that Barnabas and Paul went forth on their foreign mission supported not only by the prayers and benedictions but also by the gifts of the Antioch Christians, for "freely you have received, freely give" was a fundamental tenet of their faith. The missionary spirit was not a later growth but a fundamental principle of primitive Christianity.

III. The Work of Barnabas and Paul in Cyprus. It is significant that when they went forth Barnabas was the leader; when they returned Paul, the younger, was the commanding spirit. Barnabas first led Paul and Mark to his native island of Cyprus, but before the two leading apostles returned they had carried the Gospel of Jesus many miles beyond Paul's native city, Tarsus. The author of this section of Acts deliberately condenses his account of the missionary campaign in Cyprus. His reason is in keeping with his purpose, which was to describe the victorious advance of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome and to show that it was protected rather than opposed by the Roman authorities. Cyprus, as well as Egypt, was aside from the main line of that advance. At Salamis, the chief eastern port of Cyprus, the Christian missionaries found a large Jewish colony and were doubtless freely admitted to the synagogues, for it is probable that in this distant outpost little opposition between Judaism and Christianity had as yet developed. Luke's narrative does not expand until Barnabas and Paul come into contact with the Roman proconsul who ruled the island from its capital, Paphos. This was the new Paphos on the coast ten miles northeast of the ancient city of Paphos which had long been famous for worship of the Paphian goddess, whose shrine was there. The Roman proconsul, Paulus, was evidently a man of culture, interested in the various current philosophies. Pliny mentions him among the Roman writers of the day. In his train was a Jew who had grafted on to his inherited faith many of the heathen ideas and practices that had come from the East, especially from Persia. This half philosopher and half fakir had also won a reputation as a prophet or public preacher. He was one of the many missionaries in that strongly missionary age. The mother goddess of Phrygia, the Egyptian goddess Isis, as well as the Cynic and Stoic philosophies, all had their emissaries, like the Pharisees 'encompassing sea and land to make proselytes." In Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Rome Paul met and contested with them for the faith of men. In the presence of the cultured Roman proconsul it is

66

not Barnabas nor Saul the Jew, but Paulus the Roman citizen who suddenly stands forth and from this time on holds the central place not only in the book of Acts but in the missionary work of the Christian church. The scene in Acts is symbolic of the victorious contest that Christianity was destined to wage with the heathen cults and philosophies of the ancient world.

IV. The Mission Field in Southern Asia Minor. The activity of Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus does not appear to have been very fruitful. The narrative in Acts implies that they confined their work chiefly to the Jews. It is not even claimed that the Roman proconsul definitely aligned himself with the Christian beliefs. No discouragements or obstacles, however, could daunt Paul or deter him from the realization of the aim which he henceforth set before him. This aim alone explains why he left Cyprus and struck northward into Asia Minor. It was because he was eager to carry the Gospel of Jesus the next stage westward of Cilicia toward the heart of the Roman Empire. Perga, near the southern coast, was left behind, for it was strongly pagan and aside from the great world currents. There also, John Mark turned back, while Paul, sick in body but fearless and determined, dragged Barnabas with him up over the almost impassable southern headlands of Asia Minor, facing untold hardships, "perils of rivers and perils of robbers," to the commercial cities that lay on the great highway which led from the East to Rome. Here Paul the cosmopolitan again found himself at home. Here, as at Tarsus, Roman organization, Greek culture, and Jewish religious zeal were found side by side, even though they did not blend. Here was a field that appealed to the great missionary statesman of early Christianity.

V. At Galatian Antioch. Antioch, one of the two chief cities of the Roman province of Galatia, was an important eastern outpost of the imperial city. It lay on an isolated plateau over thirty-six hundred feet above the sea-level and two hundred feet above the western plain. It was guarded on the eastern side by the swift, deepflowing River Anthios. Augustus, recognizing its strategic importance, had made it a Roman colony about the beginning of the Christian era. It dominated the surrounding region to which the narrative of Acts refers and was a most favorable centre in which to plant the Gospel seed. Here was evidently a large Jewish colony which had attracted to its ranks many thoughtful Greeks as well as Jews. The official abolition of the local religion increased the possibilities of this new mission field. Through the medium of the local synagogue Paul

PAUL AT GALATIAN ANTIOCH

and Barnabas easily gained a hearing from the more religiously minded citizens of this important metropolis. The sermon which the author attributes to Paul contains many echoes of Stephen's earlier address. In its use of the Old Testament it reflects the current rabbinical methods. While its form may be due in part or largely to the author of this section of Acts, it is an excellent illustration of the sermons which carried conviction to the minds of earnest Jews and Gentiles seeking the way of salvation. The success of Paul and Barnabas in Galatia and Antioch was most marked. The Jews and devout Greeks gathered about them with eager questions. Not only the city itself but the surrounding region which it commanded was stirred by the message of the apostles until the opposition of the more conservative Jews was aroused. The author here as elsewhere represents the apostles as speaking first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, but the account itself indicates that from the first the appeal was to both classes. Recognizing the universality of Jesus' work, Paul in his own teaching and activity had long since broken the bond which still fettered the Palestinian Christians.

VI. The Apostles' Work at Iconium and Lystra. A positive character and message such as Paul's inevitably aroused opposition and he was soon driven with Barnabas to find refuge elsewhere and a new field of work. They left behind, however, a devoted group of disciples whose joy and spiritual exaltation testified to the divine transformation which had been worked in their lives. Eighty miles east of Antioch lay another important Galatian city. Iconium, unlike Antioch, was on a fertile, level plain on the western side of a lofty mountain range from whose sides rushed the stream which irrigated the great plain about the city. The almost constant danger of floods and foreign invasion had developed in highest measure the energy and resourcefulness of its inhabitants. Here the apostles found a flourishing colony and Jewish synagogue. Jews and Greeks alike responded to their teaching, although certain of the Jews bitterly opposed them. Here for weeks and probably months they conducted a successful mission, but its very success in time aroused the rulers, so that at last the apostles departed amidst taunts and pelting stones.

Wearied by constant opposition and in quest of a quiet place of refuge, Paul and Barnabas turned westward to the native town of Lystra, twenty miles from Iconium. It was situated in a peaceful valley, watered by two streams from the western hills. In the midst. of the valley rose the acropolis, a steep hill, a hundred and fifty feet in